Facebook, Inc.’s upcoming initial public stock offering (IPO) paperwork reveals that it plans to wipe out all of the company’s federal and state income tax obligations for 2012 and actually generate a half billion dollar tax refund. As part of the plan, Facebook co-founder and controlling stockholder, Mark Zuckerberg can expect a $2.8 billion after tax cash windfall.

According to Facebook’s SEC filing, the company has issued stock options to favored employees, including Zuckerberg, that will allow them to purchase 187 million Facebook shares for little or nothing in 2012. Options for 120 million shares (worth $4.8 billion) are owned by Zuckerberg. The company indicates that it expects all of the 187 million in stock options to be exercised in 2012.

The tax law says that if a corporation issues options for employees to buy the company’s stock in the future for its price when the option issued, then if the stock has gone up in value when employees exercise the options, the company gets to deduct the difference between what the employee bought it for and its market price.

When, as Facebook expects, the 187 million stock options are cashed in this year, Facebook will get $7.5 billion in tax deductions (which will reduce the company’s federal and state taxes by $3 billion). According to Facebook, these tax deductions should exceed the company’s U.S. taxable 2012 income and result in a net operating loss (NOL) that can then be carried back to the preceding two years to offset its past taxes, resulting in a refund of up to $500 million.

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — A baby blue billboard displaying a giant thumbs-up hand, the iconic Facebook “Like” symbol, stands on the corner of Willow Road and the 84 freeway, facing Menlo Park. It marks the entrance into the new campus of Facebook, the Internet giant that just recently went public, minted a new crop of multimillionaires, and has just moved into this newer, bigger home – the former campus of Sun Microsystems.

The Like sign may just reflect the sentiments of the city of Menlo Park, a mostly affluent suburb that is sure to receive a windfall in taxes from the arrival of its new tenant, which has made the city the new center of Silicon Valley.

But the sign is also turned away from East Palo Alto, a neighboring low-income community of color adjacent to Menlo Park. That city will be the gateway to Facebook for many commuters and may be the future home of some of the 9,000-plus employees who are expected to work at the new location. And while the rest of the Valley celebrates the expansion of the new company that is redefining how the world communicates and uses technology, East Palo Alto residents say they see more of the same: another powerful Silicon Valley corporation that will benefit at the expense, and perhaps displacement, of their city.

Last Oct. 3, four people who had met by chance seven months earlier sat down together over Mexican food to hash out when to launch the recall effort against Gov. Scott Walker.

These board members of United Wisconsin, the political action committee created with the sole purpose of recalling the governor, along with founder Michael Brown via conference call, spent two and a half hours weighing the pros and cons of a decision that would pit the fervent hopes of thousands of deeply alienated Wisconsin citizens against a governor with fundraising prowess and an unflappable commitment to his conservative agenda. They were filled with angst at the possibility of making the wrong call.

With their grass-roots and county organizers, they had been pushing for a January or February launch date. But, sensing a political opportunity fueled by the John Doe criminal investigation into top aides of Walker during his tenure as Milwaukee County executive, and learning Walker’s chief of staff was resigning to start up a recall campaign for his boss, they picked Nov. 15 instead.

“That was the night I was the sickest to my stomach,” says Ray Yunker, one of the United Wisconsin board members who made the fateful decision. “But the political climate had changed. We were thinking we had three or four months to get ready and suddenly we had about 40 days.”

The next day they told leaders of the state Democratic Party and labor unions of their decision.

The gamble paid off.

Two months later, on Jan. 17, they helped deliver more than 1 million signatures to the state’s elections office. It was nearly twice as many as the 540,208 needed to launch a recall election. An additional 840,000 signatures were turned in to recall Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.

The four took the stage later that night at a celebratory party at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. It was the first time thousands of volunteers across the state and many in the media had heard their names and seen their faces.

They were political nobodies.

But Kevin Straka, Lynn Freeman, Ryan Lawler and Ray Yunker, through sheer will, savvy leadership and a determined grass-roots volunteer network, have pulled off one of the boldest political acts in Wisconsin history. A few months from now, they may see the culmination of their efforts: removing Scott Walker from the governor’s office.

well, like here, they wouldn’t permit any fight back of the Recall. And this state, except wehre R are useful (and useful to blame), is very much in the grip of the DP. Or any acceptable conservatives. And obviously Arnold was a done deal.

David’s worried about the elderly’s mental health and well being, …no really.

Ros Altmann, the director general of the Saga over-50s group, said: “It’s outrageous social engineering for the government to suggest older people don’t deserve to live in their own homes. We need to be careful in raising the pension age to recognise there are differences in life expectancy across the country.”

Seeking to allay concerns of Catholic leaders, the president announces that women can receive birth control without paying out of pocket, but must get it directly from insurance companies if their religiously affiliated employer objects.

Poor Slob. But I guess he always yearned to be soon-to-be Cardinal Dolan’s bitch. Alternative weekends iwth Wuerl of DC… and any others that line up. Maybe they will let Slob pack his own pink glitter lube.

[W]hile there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The past three weeks have witnessed a remarkable unity of Americans from all religions or none at all worried about the erosion of religious freedom and governmental intrusion into issues of faith and morals,” he said.

“Today’s decision to revise how individuals obtain services that are morally objectionable to religious entities and people of faith is a first step in the right direction,” Dolan said. “We hope to work with the administration to guarantee that Americans’ consciences and our religious freedom are not harmed by these regulations.” . . . . .

I just tuned in to see Countdown with Keith Olbermann with Sam Seder Filling in for Keith Olbermann with Matt Taibbi being asked about him, Matt that is, being the Taibbi, who last week was diggin’ the Obama Mortgage Settlement Deal but this week he’s the Matt, Taibbi that is, who isn’t diggin it so much.

THEN they had a segment on this Obama / Catlick Wraslin match, with Seder, the guest host not the Friday meal, well, not this particular Friday meal, saying how it comes at a good time for Obama . Indeed, with screen graphic popping up, Seder went on to say while *presently* 😆 only 34% Approve of Obama’s Handling of the Economy and DISAPPROVAL is at 66% the Approval is up from last week’s 26..

One of those days where I think WHOEVER the GOP nominates will beat Obama.

THEN they had a segment on this Obama / Catlick Wraslin match, with Seder, the guest host not the Friday meal, well, not this particular Friday meal, saying how it comes at a good time for Obama .

hmm not sure Obama has had a good day, for real, in years. And little relief…. Just remember it is mandatory to have family evenings in the Slob household, from 6:30 on every night, til Memsab goes to bed. At about 10. Why oh why do I know this.

Luckily I have a load of Netfixes coming in in an hour or two. This so fried what little is left of my brains.

Doesn’t soound like Slob’s supposed compromise is going ot be acepted. What a shock. They are going where they want to go, the mandated coverage removed entirely from the bill.

[B]ishop William Lori, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, has also described the Hawaii model as a failure, arguing that it forces Catholic institutions to make a referral “to a service that it regards as intrinsically immoral.”

“There has been a lot of talk in the last couple days about compromise, but it sounds to us like a way to turn down the heat, to placate people without doing anything in particular,” Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in USA Today. “We’re not going to do anything until this is fixed,” and suggested that that would require removing the provision from the health care law altogether.

Republicans are also skeptical of the yet-to-be announced accommodation. As Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) tweeted out this morning, “Unless Pres Obama is reversing the #HHSmandate entirely, there’s no “compromise” when it comes to Americans’ religious freedom.”

Moments ago at CPAC, Jordan Sekulow, a director at the right-wing American Center for Law and Justice, said Obama’s compromise “is not worth your time – nobody’s going to accept it.” Watch it: ….

jeesh, was that Jerry, the Whimsical™, Moon Beamed Jesuit of the Empire of the 8th Largest Planetary Prison Economy; his Blawging Doggy; or his Bunches of Wifie and Masteressa (fourth guess, pukesum newsum posing as Brown [CALI] ™ Junior), in response to Ted Rall’s new toon (a wee tip of the hoody to Susie Madrak for the toon).

One of the most under-reported political stories of the last year is the devoted advocacy of numerous prominent American political figures on behalf of an Iranian group long formally designated as a Terrorist organization under U.S. law. A large bipartisan cast has received substantial fees from that group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), and has then become their passionate defenders. The group of MEK shills includes former top Bush officials and other Republicans (Michael Mukasey, Fran Townsend, Andy Card, Tom Ridge, Rudy Giuliani) as well as prominent Democrats (Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark). As The Christian Science Monitor reported last August, those individuals “have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK.” No matter what one thinks of this group – here is a summary of its activities – it is formally designated as a Terrorist group and it is thus a felony under U.S. law to provide it with any “material support.”

Sealed documents filed in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy identify at least 8,000 instances of child sexual abuse and 100 alleged offenders – 75 of them priests – who have not previously been named by the archdiocese, a victims’ attorney said Thursday.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said she did not have enough information to respond to the assertion, made by attorney Jeffrey Anderson during a pivotal hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley. Anderson represents about 350 of the 570 victim-survivors who have filed claims in the case.

But Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests speculated that some are likely members of religious orders, such as Capuchins or Franciscans. Order officials do not typically make public the names of their accused members, and the archdiocese claims it is not responsible for them, though they have historically helped to staff its parishes and schools.

“This is a public safety crisis, a child safety crisis that needs to be investigated,” Isely said at a news conference on the federal courthouse steps, surrounded by fellow survivors and reporters.

“We need to know who they are and where they are. How can there be 8,000 crimes committed by over 100 offenders and there be no accountability?” he said.

Kelley let stand, at least for now, two survivors’ claims that the church had sought to bar, arguing they were beyond the statute of limitations.

In the split decision, Kelley also granted the church’s motion for summary judgment, effectively dismissing a third claim in which a victim had signed a prior settlement agreement with the church.

In an emotional preamble to her ruling, before a packed courtroom, Kelley expressed a reverence for the Catholic Church and compassion for the victims, saying she was “brought to tears more than once” reading the accounts of the men and women who allege they were sexually abused as children by priests, deacons, nuns, teachers and others over the past 60 years.

“But I cannot let compassion be the basis for my decision. It must be governed by law,” Kelley said.

oh another thing… wandering around in the wake of the recent Bishops Dress Rehearsal for Full Revolt.. I read that as part of divesting over the past 10, 20 years to avoid losing assets to these child abuse suits, the church has uniformly divested of their hosptials… No connection to the diocese any longer, all set up, re-established as non profit independent corporations.

Seems to me, the gist of the Jesus novel was to get people to go in on lunch. Not so novel either, the early product placement of trying the Miracle Whip to stretch the tuna-fish on the Wonder Bread aside.

You know Anybody Hungry? How bout we gather stuff and pass it out? wasn’t actually a …new testament. Or an exclusive instinct to human beings. I think maybe the stone got rolling to the extent some early cave-dwelling club franchisers got it done, but that has veggies-to-spit-fire nothing to do with Jeebus.
Not like they could have just left the story alone, tho.
A great caterer?
In Jerusalem? LOL

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last week because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate’s death struck her as “peculiar,” she said Friday.

Ferman acknowledged that she enlisted county Coroner Walter I. Hofman because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

“I had the same reaction that many people had and that many people communicated with me,” Ferman told reporters at a news conference in Norristown. “It struck many of us as odd, as peculiar, that the cardinal passed away so suddenly after the court ruling. . . . I just thought that someone should make sure that nothing happened that was inappropriate.” . . . . .

One of Bevilacqua’s top aides, Msgr. William J. Lynn, faces trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court next month on child-endangerment charges, having allegedly recommended sexually abusive priests for assignments that gave them access to minors. As secretary for clergy, Lynn was responsible for reviewing abuse allegations and recommending treatment or placements for accused priests.

Bevilacqua was not charged in the case, but had become a central witness. . . . . .

On Saturday evening at McPherson Square on the infamous lobbyist-dominated K Street, the last sliver of D.C.’s Occupy encampment was charged by an inscrutable line of riot police, SWAT, and mounted police while officers yelling out “This area is closed! If you remain you are subject to arrest!” Pushed back from the encampment’s library tent by a riot shield at face level, I began to fall back into the crush of people, as the rain fell and Occupiers tripped over debris in the mire.

Screams of anger, panic, and pain began to cut through the grey air, and I managed to get back into the crowd a bit, away from the police. In the midst of the pressed and screaming crowd I saw two occupiers, Mo and Georgia, find each other, and hug. They stayed there, oblivious to the cacophony around them, both their eyes glassy and vacant and a little too wide open.

I grabbed a woman I recognized from the info tent and pointed to them. “Get them out of here,” I told her. She just looked at me for a moment in the chaos, and I repeated, “Get them the fuck out of here.” She nodded and grabbed them, still hugging. I spun around, and the riot line was on me. Pushed from every direction, I tripped over something behind me which turned out to be a person on the ground. The officer in front of me screamed “Move back!” but other people were falling on the fallen, and there was no way to move back without trampling them, and no way to stay without being trampled.

On Friday, I met Mo. Mo lived in a two-room tent, which, after the sleeping ban went into effect, he’d outfitted extravagantly like a little one-bedroom with a mattress and chest of drawers.

Mo came to Occupy DC from a village in Palestine by way of London, Brooklyn, and the Zuccotti encampment. He started calling himself Mo when he moved to America, and because he pitched his tent next to an DC Occupier called C Monee, they took to calling him Mo Money. At some point he’s worked on nearly every part of the camp, energetically pouring himself into kitchen, website work, screen printing, all before running off to the next thing. Mo is short, constantly effusious, and hyperactive. Someone wrote Honey Badger on a strip of duct tape on his back, and the moniker fits, but it belies the troubles that brought him here.

Mo is committed to non-violence in a way few people are. It is his constant point, coming from life in that other occupation.

“I’m Palestinian, and I have been wanting to bring freedom to myself and my family and people in self determination (with) non-violence…,” Mo said. “I have been wanting to do that in Palestine, when I lived in Palestine. It’s impossible to do that. You want to go dance at a checkpoint? In front of soldiers who are loaded with M16s, and you’ve got pimples. They’re going to shoot you dead in a second. You want to go and start whistling in front of a tank? Are you serious?.”

He went on, “Do you want to go on a hunger strike? You’re already hungry. You cannot do a hunger strike. What kind of action do I want to stage, if I don’t even have an audience?” Peasant revolts are always violent, he believes, because there is no public space like McPherson Square for people to demonstrate.

The moment when he became committed to non-violence was in Nablus, at the age of 23. For the first time in the evening, he slowed down as he told the story. “I was subject to a mock execution at a checkpoint in Nablus in 2006 before I came here.” He said he was blindfolded, handcuffed, and placed on the ground, a boot on his neck. One soldier put a gun to the back of his head, another shot a gun, and another hit his head with a rock. “I felt dead. You do not know what it feels to be dead unless you think you died,” he said. “For about two minutes, all I was doing is just licking the soil. It felt horrible…. I’ve seen enough violence in my life.”

–CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS Live” (Sun., 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.): roundtable with the Council on Foreign Relations’ Elliott Abrams, the London School of Economics’ Fawaz Gerges and Daily Star (Beirut) editor-at-large and the American University of Beirut’s Rami Khouri; George Soros

Ramarley Graham, an 18-year-old teenager, was killed in his home on East 229th Street in the Bronx last week by plainclothes narcotics cops. Graham, who was unarmed, was shot in the chest as he was trying to flush a small amount of weed down the toilet, as his terrified grandmother and 6-year-old brother watched from a few feet away.

Remember that historical mortgage settlement deal that was the lead news story on Thursday? It has been widely depicted as a done deal. The various AGs who had been holdouts said their concerns had been satisfied.

But in fact, Bank of America’s press release said that the deal was “agreements in principle” as opposed to a final agreement. The Charlotte bank had to be more precise than politicians because it is subject to SEC regulations about the accuracy of its disclosures. And if you read the template for the AG press release carefully, you can see how it finesses where the pact stands. And today, American Banker confirmed that the settlement pact is far from done, and the details will be kept from the public as long as possible, until it is filed in Federal court (because it includes injunctive relief, a judge must bless the agreement).

This may not sound all that important to laypeople, but most negotiators and attorneys will react viscerally to how negligent the behavior of the AGs has been. The most common reaction among lawyers I know who been with white shoe firms (including former partners) is “shocking”. Let me explain why.

Negotiating of large, complex deals (or even little deals) does not happen in one fell swoop. Even when the two sides have outlined the major terms, and in sone cases hammered out the really important ones in some detail, there is still a great deal of negotiating that takes place in finalizing the text of the contract. The negotiation over the definitive agreement makes a great deal of difference on how fair the pact turns out to be. For instance, one of the sayings of transaction lawyers is “He who controls the document controls the deal.” The party that writes up the initial version of the contract has undue influence because that becomes the default and the other side has to negotiate back from that language.

As attorney Max Gardner said via e-mail (boldface ours):

I would never tell a client that I had settled a case or claim against a creditor until the ink was on the final written settlement agreement. I would of course advise the client of the verbal offer and secure the client’s acceptance but would always say something like “don’t spend any of the money because as Yogi might say it ain’t over until we have the signed agreement and their check has cleared my trust account.” An attorney would be guilty of serious ethical violations if he or she told a client we have a settlement with BoA and it is final before the deal was closed out by written agreement and in my bankruptcy practice the agreement was approved by the court. The AGs have said this agreement must be approved by a Federal District Court Judge so really why would you make such public announcements before at the least a written agreement signed and inked by ALL of the parties.

Why is it deeply troubling that the attorneys general have gone along with the Administration’s messaging and have all fallen in line with the “biggest Federal-state settlement ever” when no such settlement in fact exists? This isn’t just acceding to the Administration’s pet wish to build on its State of the Union PR. They’ve completely abandoned their negotiating leverage at a critical stage.

I caught just the end of that economist I hear sometimes locally, Jack Rasmus… this morning.

the thing is a horror. There are no real penalties for doing nothing. AND even if they modify a mortgage, it will AGAIN not be permanent. It may be AGAIN just for two or three years (many found out over recent years that even if they GOT a mod it was for 12 or 13 months) AND under the new legislation, there is no permanent reduction of principle… so when your mod expires and your payments ratchet back up you still owe the inflated amt.

Clearly, the Obama Administration is positioning itself for the 2012 general election. The goal is to do the right things and say just enough to make the Administration’s policies appear successful. The messaging is designed to build up a base from which to contrast Obama from the eventual Republican nominee in order to get out the vote. I doubt seriously that Obama’s people want any of these mortgage fraud initiatives to have teeth. After all, the President is going for the Super PAC money.

This is kabuki theater for the masses. it is designed to give those people inclined to vote for a Democrat a reason to do so in November, nothing more.

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.